Start with the heart

When it comes to evangelism, pay attention to the heart first. That’s where the real barriers lie.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-7)

Personal evangelism begins on the inside. The essence of what we are doing by sharing our faith, person-to-person, is allowing people see and hear about Christ ... through us. Yes we are heralding an historic gospel message. And that message is independent of us. But the work of personal evangelism is not simply a matter of taking the gospel package down from the shelf to hand to someone. Rather, the gospel comes to reside in us—Christ himself moving in and beginning the process of spiritual redecoration (Eph 3:17). This should encourage us. Our hope for fruitful outreach is not in being whiz-bang evangelists, but in Christ and the message of the cross, shining out from our ordinary clay pot lives. We don’t put hope for the salvation of others in anything but Christ—not in our evangelistic tools, and not in ourselves. But if our hope is in Christ and his gospel, we still may not neglect the issue of our hearts. If Christ is the treasure that shines out from our inner being, then we should pay attention to our heart. This is where the greatest barriers to fruitful evangelism lie.

Heart-Level Barriers to Outreach

We often discuss barriers to outreach: fear, lack of knowledge, rejection, cultural disconnects, etc. These may be real barriers. And there are more. But the deeper barriers to fruitful outreach are what hinder the glory of Christ from shining out from our hearts: willful, unconfessed sin, and broken relationships between Christians in the church. If the gospel is fundamentally a heart issue, then it stands to reason that that’s where the battle will be—in our hearts. If we’re at odds with the Spirit, by consciously allowing sin to fester, we will be out of step with the Spirit and not seeing his fruit. In other words, we will not be abiding in Christ. John 15:5 says,

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

I’m not suggesting we need a two-day spiritual retreat before we can share the gospel with a friend. But I am suggesting that there’s a direct link between our heart’s relationship with God, and our hope for evangelistic fruit. If we are deliberately feeding sin, it will affect our outreach. How confident can we be to invite friends to the Jesus the sin-slayer, when sin has mastery over us? The other barrier is disunity among Christians. This too is a heart issue. Seriously? How does my non-Christian co-worker know that I’m not getting along with my friend at church? I’m not saying that she will know (though word gets around when Christians have problems!). But we do know that Jesus said:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

And this:

"I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20-21).

God has designed it so that Christian unity is one of the most powerful testimonies to the work of the gospel. We can’t overlook this as we “go out”. So here’s a take-away. If you are launching an outreach activity at your church, or renewing evangelism in some way, begin by bringing this up. Start the preparation for your outreach initiative by talking about sin in our hearts. Talk about disunity between Christians. Call your people to healthy, Scripturally-guided reflection. Evangelist types don’t often like to stop and reflect, but it’s important. Call for a time of confession. Encourage conversations of forgiveness and restoration. Show them the Word of God about this. Highlight 2 Corinthians 4:5-7, John 13:34-35 and John 17:20-21. Then, after you’ve done that, move on to the strategy and the activities.  Outreach begins inside.